On June 27, Taiwan Bureau of Energy, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced that the Executive Yuan (the Cabinet) has approved to invest NT$2.8 billion in three years for replacing existing 326,000 mercury streetlights with LED streetlights, expecting to create NT$4.5 billion of production value.

Of the amount, public bidding for at least 273,000 LED streetlights will be completed by the end of 2012, in preparation for installation by the middle of 2013.

The batch of 326,000 LED streetlights will account for less than 20% of Taiwan’s total streetlights numbering 1.57 million.

The LED streetlight installation project was formulated by the Bureau of Energy and consists of three sub-projects. The project was included into the “economic countermeasures” of the Executive Yuan last December.

Under the first subproject, Taipower will subsidize Keelung City, Hsinchu City, and Chiayi City for replacement of 53,000 mercury streetlights with LED lights, while under the second and third subprojects, 23,000 streetlights in remote areas and offshore islands and 250,000 streetlights in urban areas will be replaced.

It’s estimated that 326,000 LED streetlights will lead to power conservation of 143 million kilowatt/hour annually and reduce 87,500 metric tons of CO2 emission, equivalent to the carbon-absorption amount of 255 Daan forest park in Taipei.